Justice awoke with one of the worst headaches of his entire life. He looked around the room, expecting it to be a hospital.

Instead, it seemed to be a rather cozy looking bedroom.

He gingerly lifted himself up, expecting a wave of pain through his recovering bones, yet there was none.

He looked up at the round mirror to assess the damages to his body. His last memories of the crash hadn't been very pleasant, so he couldn't imagine what his body would look.

Interestingly enough everything looked fine. There didn't seem to be very much damage if any at all. That was great, but it did leave him with the greater mystery.

It wasn't his face staring back at him.

The young man in the mirror was roughly the same age as Justice, but his jaw was definitely more round. His shoulders were large and strong, looking more like a football player than the trumpet player he had been the night before.

The oak door swung open and an older gentleman entered the room. His hair was one large fluff of white, and he had a pleasant smile.

"I thought you might wake up right about now," He said.

"Where am I?" Justice asked. Sure, it wasn't the first question on his mind, but it was a good place to start.

"This is the Lazarus Manor," The man replied sharply. "Home of the wayward and misguided."

"How did I get here?"

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," The man said, "But breakfast starts in fifteen minutes and you need to get ready." The man left shortly after he spoke, leaving a blue colored polo shirt and a pair of slacks.

Justice stood up, he expected vertigo, he expected a wave of agony.

He expected to wake up from this dream.

Yet there was nothing. It seemed that whatever pale substitute of reality he had stumbled into was here to stay for awhile.

He threw on his clothes and headed out of the room. There was a wide hallway, something similar to a victorian mansion. He passed several more rooms as he traveled to the curving stairs.

Once downstairs he stumbled into a wide dinner hall. A large table erect with several different dishes with steam pouring from the freshly cooked food.

At the table was three other teens. Each of them carried a unique expression.

The first boy seemed uninterested in Justice's entrance, instead he was more focused on the food at hand. He piled several pancakes onto his plate and doused them in syrup.

The girl next to him cast a sideways glance as she looked down at the single egg sitting on her plate.

The last boy threw a waffle onto the girl's plate, the two exchanged dirty expressions, but then he moved his attention to Justice.

"You can take a seat," The boy said, "I'm Russell by the way."

"I'm Justice," Justice said and awkwardly took a seat at the opposite end of the table.

"We know," The girl said, still looking down at her plate, "Elijah already took us."

"Elijah was the old guy," Russell explained. "These quite folks are Maria and Ralph."

"How did you die?" Ralph asked abruptly.

Maria shot an aggressive look at Ralph.

"We shouldn't beat around the bush," Ralph said, "What if he's developed some sort of psychological damage from his past life? I figured you'd get that."

"A car crash," Justice blurted out, he was uncomfortable speaking of it, especially because that supported the idea that he had in fact been killed. "I was drunk."

Ralph nodded. "I'll remember to keep you away from the bottle then."

"Stop it," Maria insisted.

"Eat your breakfast," Ralph barked, "I'm just trying to make things easier."

"So what's even going on?" Justice asked.

"You've been drafted," Ralph explained, "Whether you like it or not."

"For what? This sure doesn't look like the military."

"Looks that way," Ralph said, "But don't let the aesthetic fool you. This is a war."

"I don't understand," Justice said, "You guys are saying I died, and I kind of believe it. But I'm here."

"We all died," Ralph said, "Then we came back."

"How? Why?"

Ralph shrugged, "Your guess is as good as ours. One moment dead, then the next moment here. No fuss, nothing. And that's how it's been for the three of us, and I'm assuming for you too."

Justice almost agreed, but a memory rushed into his mind. There was the grassy hill, the girl with blond. Was that just a dream? He wasn't sure anymore.

Reality was currently doing a handstand.

"At least he came today," Russell said, "So we have time to train him before anything weird happens."

Maria nodded, keeping her eyes on her plate, "That's true, we should still have a few days."

Justice looked between the two and tried to catch any sort of extra communication. Everyone seemed to talk as if he was already an expert in this strange world.

"Can someone please fill me in?" Justice asked.

"Yeah," Ralph said, "Eventually we'll catch you up to speed. But for now, just relax. You're alive, so treat yourself to an egg or two, Elijah spent his morning preparing them."


One of the strangest things to Justice was that the time between his death and resurrection had apparently been five years. This was a shared phenomenon between the four of them though the distance was completely personalized.

"I died seven years before I was resurrected," Russell explained. The two were sitting out in a wide courtyard built into the side of the manor. Justice had decided he liked Russell, there was a charismatic air to his earnestness. They were under the shade of a pear tree while Russell enjoyed one of its emerald fruits. "Things aren't really that different."

Justice shrugged, he couldn't imagine he missed much either.

A pang followed closely behind his next thought. He wondered where his girlfriend was by now.

"Have you tried to go home?" Justice asked.

Russell shrugged, "I've thought about it, but Ralph doesn't want us to."

"Why not?"

"Doesn't really talk about it," Russell said in between bites, "I figured he's already tried it, I mean he's been here a year longer than any of us."

Justice wasn't sure why that thought hadn't occurred to him before, someone would have to have been there first, figured it would be Ralph.

"I mean look at us," Russell said as he waved his hand across his body, "I sure didn't look like this before I died. They probably wouldn't believe it no matter how much I tried."

"Yeah," Justice agreed, though deep in his mind's eye he wasn't convinced. He clung to the fantasy of returning home and meeting his parents. They would have to remember him. Surely their connection was far greater than any physical appearances.

Justice looked down at the watch and ring resting on his right side. Ralph promised an eventual explanation but none had surfaced.

Justice was really starting to crave a drink.

"Things will make a bit more sense tonight," Russell offered, noticing Justice's fascination with his new watch and ring.

Justice didn't exactly know what that implied, but he looked out at the crimson red star that was dipping down into the skyline.

He didn't know where he was, but he definitely wanted to find out.


There was a cool breeze blowing across the empty basketball field the four of them had met at. Justice looked around and suddenly realized he knew where he was. Back in his other life, this had been freshly constructed, he had actually played with his younger brother here once or twice.

The idea filled him with both joy and dread. That meant he was only a twenty-minute drive from his hometown, whatever was left of it anyway.

"In times past I just tried to explain everything during the first breakfast," Ralph blurted. He was standing right under one of the hoops. He was dressed in a red hoodie and jeans. His age seemed to shine through in the heavy moonlight, sure he was probably only in his late twenties, but the mileage of whatever life he was living riddled him like a disease. "But it's better if I just show you."

Ralph held up his right hand, and his ring and wristwatch both exploded with crimson colors.

His armor was like nothing Justice had ever seen in his life. A leather undersuit with red plating. It was like something out of a fantasy movie, or maybe a video game.

"I said that we're at war, and that couldn't be any truer," Ralph explained. "This city is crawling with creatures we've dubbed demons. We are the only thing between them and the rest of the world." Ralph pointed at the watch on Justice's wrist. "You have been given the power to fight. You have been resurrected with one purpose, to protect."

Justice simply nodded. Deep down he knew that he hadn't quite had enough to process what was being said. It was all foreign and rather terrifying, but he had yet to touch the ground.

"You have to channel your inner power," Ralph said, "From there you can summon your own spirit armor. You can become a Power Ranger."

Justice touched the smooth crystal face of his watch. Did he really have that kind of power inside of himself?

Justice didn't have much time for contemplation because before he knew it he was surrounded.

A posse of cloaked figures formed a tight ring around the four youths. It didn't take much imagination to discover they were the aforementioned demons.

"This is weird," Russell muttered, "They don't really do this."

"Mass around like this?" Justice asked.

"No, come a second day in a row."

The posse opened to allow three figures to step into the yellow light. Two of the figures appeared to be guards of sorts, dressed in full body armor with masked designed to resemble tiger skulls.

The third figure was a little harder for Justice to swallow. It was a bipedal figure clad in plated Chinese armor. It pointed its snout at the four humans and it's tiger mouth formed a crude smile.

"Sorry for the brash entrance," He said in a gruff voice. "I just wanted to meet your new arrival."

"So what, are you the leader?" Ralph asked, he brandished a giant hammer and held it ready.

"Something like that," The tiger said. The figure took a step closer and unsheathed his blade.

Maria and Russell both summoned their own armor, purple and green respectively and stood their guard.

The tiger laughed, "I'm not interested in anyone but the Youngblood."

Justice was frozen solid, he could see the bloodlust circling in the tiger's golden eyes.

The tiger swung his blade into the Red Ranger, sending sparks from his body and causing him to buckle over.

When the green and purple Rangers jumped to Justice's aid they were quickly intersected by the tiger's skull guards.

The tiger moved in swiftly, his body melting into a blur before picking Justice up by the collar of his shirt and lifting him in the air.

"Show me your power," the tiger hissed. "Give me fear."

Justice could feel something stirring in his chest, something more than just fear. Something was trying to break free, he could feel it tingling in his fingertips. Begging for release, needing some sort of escape from his tin body.

A navy colored electricity raised across his right arm, seeming to crawl from the watch and up his forearm. He closed his eyes, giving all of his focus to this power, letting it dictate him in the purest form possible.

Then it exploded. It jumped out of him like water from a fire hydrant. The tiger was knocked to his feet as Justice was swallowed by the energy.

The energy transformed into Justice's own armor. It was similar to the rest, only cobalt and carrying the symbol for Aquarius on his chest.

The navyranger lifted his weapons in the air, a short sword and a badge-shaped shield.

The new Ranger swung down at the tiger, their blades met with a shower of sparks. Justice had never touched a sword in his life, but how his brain was surging with different formations. His muscles were tuned into several subtle twitches that most humans spent their entire lives developing.

He slammed his shield into the tiger's maw and send it back a few paces, then he stabbed forward with all of his strength. The blade missed its mark, but instead cut into the metal pole that supported the basketball hoop.

The tiger had seen enough and decided to flee while he had the chance. He kicked into the navy ranger and dashed away.

The other demons followed, leaving the four rangers completely alone.

Justice fell to his knees as his morphed form slipped away. He felt drained both emotionally and physically as if he has been subject to a strange possession.

"You did good," Ralph said, also back to his civilian form. "Though next time don't miss."

Russell helped Justice up while Maria and Ralph fled. "A sword and a shield, that definitely beats my bow."

Justice was still trying to beat the pounding in his head. If this was what it would be like every time he could definitely see himself taking a more passive stance.

Still, he would worry about that later. Instead, he tried to focus on the fact he was still alive. He looked back at the basketball court and felt a wave of nostalgia.

He never knew how far one could feel from home when only a town away.